“We were just returning from the N’wanetsi Picnic spot and this beautiful sighting came along and greeted us. It was a quiet morning and there were no other cars at the time. It was sheer disbelief!

“In the end, my family and I were jumping out of our skin. We were so lucky and thankful that the lions were walking towards us. I pulled over to the side and just let them come to us. My hand was shaking with exhilaration so the video is not perfectly still I’m afraid.

“The sighting ended a few minutes later when a few other cars showed up, and then literally pushed the lions off the road into the bushes.”

WORCESTER — Hoping to give his mother something pleasant to look at off her balcony at Plantation Towers, Bill Chappell set up a bird feeder and spread some seeds on the ground in a garden space near the parking lot.

He got a lot of birds, but he also attracted a couple of nature’s oddities. “I put out the seeds, and I was out watching birds, when I noticed something white,” he said. “It was an albino chipmunk.”

As it turns out, there are two. A second white chipmunk was seen a few days later, also dining beneath the feeder.

A new white bison from Shirek Buffalo Ranch was quick to get out into the summer pasture where the bison herd overseen by the National Buffalo Museum roams each day.

“She got out of there (the trailer in which she was transported) so fast, it was like a shot,” said Ilana Xinos, National Buffalo Museum executive director. Xinos said the museum is trying the year-old bison cow out on a trial basis with the herd. “We’ll see how things go, sometimes it takes a little time for the herd to adjust to a new face,” she said.

Baby bison born in Hays; more calves expected

The city of Hays welcomed two baby bison to its herd last week at Frontier Park.

Jeff Boyle, director of the city’s parks department, said the bison’s keeper thinks all five of the cows in the herd will likely have calves this season, including the herd’s white bison, sometimes referred to as Ghostbuster.

The bull in the herd does not exhibit any albino traits, so it is unknown if Ghostbuster would have a white or brown calf.

Photo courtesy of Trent Zimmerman.Just moments after finding the only morel of the day near a cluster of elm trees, Zimmerman and Maggie walked a few steps and surveyed the forested landscape.

Twenty yards ahead stood a tiny four-legged form shining like a full moon in the shaded woods: a white deer fawn.

The deer locked eyes with what were likely the first human and dog it had seen in its young life.

“We just sort of pulled up in shock,” said Zimmerman, 38. “What a sight.”

The fawn was standing, Zimmerman said, but didn’t try to run.

The fawn tottered on its spindly legs as Maggie, a 1-year-old Labrador retriever, walked over to investigate. Zimmerman can be heard on the video telling his dog to back off, an order to which Maggie promptly complied.

As with all young wildlife, it’s important to leave fawns where they are found. An adult is likely near and will return soon. Female deer will leave their offspring in grassy or brushy areas and return several times a day to feed them. The process continues until the fawns are strong enough to run and follow the doe.

Life on the Summit: Hey, Spike! writes on Graybills and white bison

It was two rare white wildlife species — a red-tailed hawk in the San Luis Valley and a bison in Park County — that brought about this week’s column.

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Knowing Native American folklore about the spirituality of albino-like creatures piqued Coleen’s interest.

“I photographed both the white bison and the leucistic (white) red-tailed hawk at the end of February to mid-March. I have a thing for spirit animals, and especially animal totems not usually seen as white. They bring a deep spiritual meaning with them. I was very excited about the hawk and how unusual the sighting was,” she says.

“I have seen up to three white bison at the same time there, but never had my camera with or they were too far out in the field to photograph well,” Coleen notes. “We photographed there again just a couple days ago on our way to Colorado Springs. We will be working up a couple of new images this week.”

Hidden near Hartsel, a spectral rare white buffalo

My husband Steve and I were driving to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument when we spotted a full-grown white buffalo grazing in a field just west of the South Park hamlet of Hartsel.

Full disclosure: I couldn’t find any information about this particular creature, one of a small herd of standard, chocolate-brown-furred bison, so I’m going to speculate. Its eyes were dark, meaning it probably wasn’t albino. And since the National Bison Association’s code of ethics prohibits members from deliberately crossbreeding the American bison (Bison bison) with other species, it probably wasn’t a bison-cattle cross.

Sacred White Animals herald both a Blessing and a Warning Apart from the prophesized white Buffalos (which are among the most sacred animals a person could ever encounter), other rare and beautiful white animals have begun to appear the world

Tourists aboard a wildlife cruise in Australia were treated to an incredibly rare sight when they spotted a mature white crocodile swimming in the water.

The ghostly reptile, believed to measure around 10 feet long and given the nickname ‘Pearl,’ was seen on the Adelaide River during an excursion by the Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise.

While the condition is not altogether uncommon in crocodiles, the fact that the creature was able to survive its childhood, when the pale animal would have been particularly vulnerable to predators, is seen as quite remarkable.